English
Etymology
OE. famen; cf. OF. afamer, L. fames. See famine|Famine, and cf. affamish|Affamish.
Verb
en-verb|famish|es
<!-- Def is from Websters 1913; remove this if updated -->
- transitive To starve, kill, or destroy with hunger.
<!-- Def is from Websters 1913; remove this if updated -->
- transitive To exhaust the strength or endurance of, by hunger; to distress with hunger.
#:*And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. -- Cen. xli. 55.
#:*The pains of famished Tantalus he'll feel. --Dryden.
<!-- Def is from Websters 1913; remove this if updated -->
- transitive To kill, or to cause to suffer extremity, by deprive|deprivation or denial of anything necessary.
#:*And famish him of breath, if not of bread. -- Milton.
<!-- Def is from Websters 1913; remove this if updated -->
- transitive To force or constrain by famine.
#:*He had famished Paris into a surrender. -- Burke.
<!-- Def is from Websters 1913; remove this if updated -->
- intransitive To die of hunger; to starve.
<!-- Def is from Websters 1913; remove this if updated -->
- intransitive To suffer extreme hunger or thirst, so as to be exhausted in strength, or to come near to perish.
#:*You are all resolved rather to die than to famish? -- Shakespeare
<!-- Def is from Websters 1913; remove this if updated -->
- intransitive To suffer extremity from deprivation of anything essential or necessary.
#:*The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish. -- Prov. x. 3.
References
Websters 1913 entry on "famish" at ARTFL
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